


Stumbling Into Derek's Heart

by DarkJediQueen



Series: A Very Sterek Summer Fest 2020 [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A Very Sterek Summer Fest 2020, M/M, No Hale Fire, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25546918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Derek likes the way that nature filled the silences with pretty sounds. He just loved being in nature and he was glad that his family ran the Preserve. He was glad to be part of that. Even if that meant dealing with campers sometimes who didn't treat Mother Nature the way that they should. Stiles wasn't one of them though.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: A Very Sterek Summer Fest 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849435
Comments: 25
Kudos: 235
Collections: A Very Sterek Summer fest 2020





	Stumbling Into Derek's Heart

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : For A Very Sterek Summer Fest 2020 July 27 Prompt of Camp/Camping.   
> **Beta** : Grammarly

Derek heard the sound of someone stomping through the trees long before he saw anyone. He waited to see who it was. He knew that seventeen people were camping in this area of the park. He just hadn't come across any of them yet. Derek really hoped that he wouldn't come across any of them. He hated campers. They were always too loud, and he would rather just never come across any of them.

Running the Hale Preserve was something that everyone in the family did in some ways or another. The only one who really never set foot on the land to do anything was Uncle Peter. He lived on the land in the large house that most of the family lived in, but his job as a lawyer for the park and a few other natural areas was something that kept him busy in his office or in court. He always went hiking with Derek on the weekends, though, to relax.

The group of seventeen that were camping in the park at the moment were all college graduates who thought it would be fun to celebrate surviving college by hiking in a place where they had no right to be. They were city folk who did this for fun, to take pictures with nature and show that they cared about the world around them. They would leave the camp in disarray, and it would take Derek days to clean it up. He would probably have to replant a good bit of the underbrush around the area as well.

The person stopped and crouched down to take a picture of a plant before standing up. He didn't touch the plant, which was about the only smart thing that someone like him could do. It wasn't any of the poisons that killed one, but it did have urushiol on it. Derek stood up and was about to yell at him when the man took a few steps back. He turned and headed in a different way before typing on his phone again. He stopped walking to type and then would go again after he sent it.

Derek followed along behind the man as he took pictures of things and sometimes touched, but only after he had taken a picture and tapped around on his phone. Derek was confused as hell about this guy. He watched as the guy found a clearing that got a good bit of sun, and he settled down in it. He pulled out a tablet from his backpack and started to mess around on it. Derek moved around the edges to see that he was drawing.

Leaving the man to his own devices, Derek went back to where he was checking out one of the trails that would sometimes wash out after rains like they had the day before. He hoped that the young man didn't get lost and Derek have to go and rescue him.

* * *

"No, Mom, I'm gonna stay in the ranger cabin in section eight tonight. We've got that group of seventeen partying, and it's supposed to rain. It'll save me from having to head out to here to check these trails first thing. I'll know if we need to close them with little work."

"Is this going to be a repeat of four summers ago?" Talia asked as she looked at Derek through the computer screen.

Derek wanted to scowl, but he didn't. The Internet connection in the park was damned good; they paid to make sure that it was good all over, not for the hikers and campers, but because of the cameras that kept a watch on the more troublesome areas. More cameras were also put up when it was nearing a few certain times of years to make sure that no hikers went past the signs about not going into places due to animal mating. They didn't need a repeat of a guy being chased off by bears.

"No. I'll head back into the area when the campers are gone. You had to allow them to camp in one of the worst parts of the Preserve."

"They are experienced hikers. They come and walk the trails and have since they were teenagers."

"What?" Derek looked at his mother again. He assumed they were rich frat kids who wouldn't know not to wipe their asses with poison ivy.

"Yeah, they are all from here in Beacon Hills. In fact, as soon as Cora makes it hope today, she's joining them. They are all from a grade above and below hers. Then there are the two that are from her grade. I even think that Stiles is joining the group this time."

Derek had heard a lot about Stiles form Cora. The Sheriff's Deaf son who Cora had gotten along with. Derek had never met him as he tended to be in the Preserve at all hours. He had seen him in passing but never anything more than that. Cora and Derek got along, but Derek liked his quiet, so when she brought around her friends, Derek stayed the hell away. It worked for them all, and everything was good. Derek had gone to college a year early and graduated with three degrees under his belt to help with forest and park management. He was the resident of everything here. He even did a few online classes at the closest college to keep things up to date when new classes came in.

"Still, that big of a group, I'd rather be on hand if something happens."

"Of course."

Derek took in the look on his mother's face. It wasn't that Derek didn't trust them, he would just rather be where they were. It was usually only the really serious people that came this far into the Preserve to camp. He was glad that Cora was joining, but she wasn't as big on the whole nature part as Derek was. She loved hiking, and she was going to be one of the ones who took care of tour groups and the school kids who were brought out to learn about nature. Derek had done a few of those when he was in high school, and he told his mother he would live in the deepest parts of the Preserve to never come out again if she ever made him do it again. Thankfully, she had never made him do it again.

"Do you have enough supplies?"

"Yeah, I caught a few rabbits last night, and I cooked up the meat and have it in the fridge. I found some of the potatoes that we planted in the one garden area as well. I've got enough stuff to make soup and the like. I'll be fine. I plan to head into town on Saturday and pick up some more stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated to hike out here."

"That sounds good. Come to get dinner one night this week as well. I'm sure they won't burn down the forest."

"Sure."

Derek said his goodbyes and then shut down the laptop. The ranger's cabin had electricity. It was mainly used as a first-aid stop by hikers and was left open unless someone was sleeping in there like Derek would be. Sometimes they had researchers and the like out, and they stayed in them as well. It was all pretty sparse on everything except the freezer was full of ice packs.

Grabbing his hat, Derek slipped it on before he headed out to make a fire for the evening. The ground around the fire pit was wet from the rains during the day, and there was a supply of wood on the porch of the house under a tarp. Derek found a few logs and set up the fire like he wanted before he lit it. He had found enough underbrush items that he had laid out around the area to dry out during the day that it all caught very nicely.

Derek could hear echoes of the group as they started to all come back to the main area, just a half-mile away from where Derek was. They were loud but no louder than most other groups that settled in the area.

Once the fire was high enough, Derek went to get the rabbit he had skinned that afternoon before putting it in the fridge in a bag with some marinade. He carried it out, got it over the fire on the spit, and let it start cooking. Derek looked at the sky as it darkened to blue with not nearly as much light pollution in this area as there was closer to the town of Beacon Hills. Derek loved it out here, and if he could stay out here until he died, he would be happy.

Derek grabbed the rabbit off of the spit when it smelled done. The marinade was his favorite that his aunt made up for using for cooking out in the wild. Derek stayed right around his fire as the night deepened, and the stars came out more and more. He went inside and found his gear to sleep outside. He had packed it just in case the nights were like they were. He could run inside quickly and sleep on the bed inside if the rain did come, but Derek loved being outdoors.

There was a meteor shower just before midnight, and Derek watched it from his sleeping bag laid on the ground. He closed his eyes as it gave him a show, and he was asleep in seconds.

* * *

"There he is!" Cora yelled as Derek came into the middle of their camp.

Derek looked around for the man he had seen taking pictures in the forest and didn't see him.

"Hey, Cora. I just wanted to give you guys the heads up staying away from the Canter Trail. I closed it off until Dad and Steve can get out there and cut down the tree that fell. It eroded a good section of it, and it's not safe until we can rebuild the trail back up some. The tree is massive, and the only way around is washed out."

"Got it. Thanks. We were heading that way today."

"That's what mom said. It's not gonna be hard to fix up again once we get the tree out of there. It's the one that we've been watching for rot. I guess with the windstorm that we had and the rain, the ground was just soft enough the whole thing tipped over." Derek turned to leave without talking to anyone else. He didn't know any of the people there, so he didn't feel like he should stay.

"Eat lunch with us, Allison made some stir-fry, and it's pretty good for camp stir fry. She's just about to get the second batch off."

"Sure." Derek could hear her desperation in her voice for him to stay. He had no clue why but he figured that she just missed him.

"So, you roughing it, and mom's freaked out," Cora said as she handed him a bowl of stir-fry with no rice in it. He looked and saw that everyone else had rice, but it was wild grain rice. He wrinkled his nose at that. "Yeah, that's why I didn't give you any."

"I'm just going through a rough patch again. Dad will get her back off soon."

"I heard that Jennifer is moving," Cora said.

"Cora," Derek looked around at people she was with, but everyone was talking, and no one was looking at them.

"It's fine. I just wanted to say that you know you can talk to me. I don't push like Mom, Dad, and Laura. Peter also offered his guest house if you wanted it."

Derek laughed. The guest house was just off the edge of the property on the other side that Derek's house was, and it was where Peter stayed when his long time on and off again boyfriend was in town. Derek had stayed there a few times to be closer to the family when he didn't want to be fully alone. The last time had been after Kate had dumped him.

"I'm fine. I promise. Things hadn't been good between us for a while. She didn't like that I don't like the same kinds of romantic events like her. She likes hiking but not nearly as much as me. We had a fight. She accused me of loving the forest more than her, which..."

"We all know that you love it out here. You just need to find someone who loves it as much as you."

"Has anyone seen Stiles?" a young man with a crooked jaw asked.

"He went to get more pictures of the plants so he can work on his book," someone else said.

Derek looked at the man who had spoken, and he saw that it was Jackson Whittemore. That meant the man he had seen getting pictures was Stiles. That also explained why he hadn't heard Derek following him. It explained a lot about him in general. Derek wondered what kind of pictures he needed for what he was working on. Derek tried to remember if he had heard about what Stiles did for a living, and he couldn't remember. He wasn't going to ask, though.

"Thanks," Derek said as he held up his bowl. One of the others took it from his hand, and it was added to a tub of water by the fire. It looked like it had suds in it. Derek opened up his mouth but shut it when Cora looked at him.

"It's all-natural stuff. I made sure everything we use is," Cora said.

"Good. I'm gonna head. I've got a few more trails that I need to check out before heading in for the afternoon. You saved me from having to warm up more rabbit."

"Yeah, I smelled it last night. You made everyone here want rabbit, and I told them I wasn't hunting them."

Derek laughed as he stood up and headed back into the forest. He picked up his backpack from where he had dropped it and headed toward the trail that he needed to check over.

Hours were filled with hiking to make sure that the trails were safe; it was the part of the job that Derek loved the most besides the whole thing where he could work without talking to anyone who wasn't his family. He loved days like that. When the sun was starting to set again, Derek headed toward the ranger's cabin.

Derek stopped when he saw someone sitting on the porch of the cabin. His head was tipped down, and he was doing something on a tablet. Derek knew then that it had to be Stiles. Derek stayed back and watched Stiles as he drew on his tablet. After fifteen minutes and Stiles not looking up, Derek moved to where he was in the direct path in front of him and walked toward him.

Stiles looked up at him and waved with the hand that was holding the stylus.

"Hello," Derek signed at Stiles.

Stiles' eyes widened in shock, and he quickly dropped his legs down and rested the tablet there and signed back hello. He looked a little unsure and then signed again. "Do you know sign?"

"A good bit," Derek said back.

Stiles' face looked like it was going to crack with how much he was smiling. Then he got a good look at Derek as he slipped under the porch. Derek knew the moment that Stiles figured out who he was.

"Derek?" Stiles asked.

Derek nodded his head.

"I'm Stiles. It's nice to finally meet you." Stiles picked up his tablet when he was done signing and shut the screen off before slipping the stylus into a holder on the case and closing it. It went into a backpack, and he was standing up. The backpack was slung over his shoulder. "I'll leave you to your place. I was just getting a drawing done before I lost the idea that was in my head."

"You don't have to rush off," Derek signed.

"I'm getting hungry, and if I'm not back in camp before the sun gets below the trees, Cora and Scott are gonna come looking for me."

"You could text Cora that you are here."

Stiles looked at Derek like he was trying to figure him out. Derek figured that Cora talked about how Derek liked to not be around people, but Stiles was Deaf, and he didn't like to talk. Derek had heard him a few times at various functions. That their parents had been at, but he had been a lot younger. Derek knew that he could talk, and he sometimes did. Stiles' hearing issues started when he was born, but he had learned enough to speak before he had gone fully deaf before he was ten. Derek wasn't sure what had happened with him, but he wasn't ever going to ask. He didn't need to. It wasn't his issue.

Derek also knew that Stiles was good at lip-reading, but he hated to rely on it when it was one on one conversations unless the other person couldn't sign. Derek understood why too. It felt weird to do.

"When did you learn sign language?" Stiles asked.

Derek didn't answer at first; he walked to stand in front of Stiles and then sat down, leaning his back against the porch beam. He sat with his legs crossed so they wouldn't get in the way of his hands.

"We had a ranger here who had lost the ability to speak after a horrible car accident. He was good at writing, but I was just young enough that I wanted to learn how to sign from him. He got me some good books to learn and then helped me until he moved on a few years ago. His family left the area, his kids, and he followed them. I've kept up with it by talking to him over Skype on occasion and just practicing it while hiking."

Stiles nodded his head, a smile was on his lips. He put up his tablet and moved the backpack at his feet out of the way before he slipped down to sit at the same level as Derek. He looked a little shy about something but inhaled, and then his hands started to move. "What work stuff are you doing tomorrow?"

"Just hiking trails to check them out for damage after the storms. I know this area better than anyone, so Mom is keeping everyone back but your group. She trusts that they are not stupid idiots and Cora's with them. Why?" It felt good to sign again. Derek had missed it. He loved talking with Jim when he had been here. Yeah, Derek could have spoken, but learning sign and using it made him better understand what Jim was saying. It was nice and quiet too, with Stiles not speaking and Derek not as well.

"I wanted to head toward the small waterfall, but none of the group wants to come with me."

"I've not checked that you. So you want to hike there and back."

Stiles shook his head. His fingers shook a little, and he pressed them to his pants before starting to sign again. "No, I wanna stay there for a few hours. I was hoping you could maybe escort me and then head out and come back later."

Derek looked at Stiles and then down at his backpack. He assumed that Stiles wanted to work on whatever he was working on the tablet on, but he wasn't sure why he wanted to be there to do it.

"What kind of books do you read? Cora says you read a lot and will even listen to audiobooks while hiking if you have a long trail you are doing."

"I read a lot of things really, anything that catches my eye." Derek wasn't sure why the topic had changed so quickly.

Stiles nodded his head. He looked at the cabin door before he rubbed at his arms. It wasn't that cool, but then Stiles was normally in layers, so he was just wearing the T-shirt that he was, meant he was cooler than normal with the sun nearly fully set.

"Wanna go inside?" Derek hoped that he signed the right words.

Stiles nodded his head and stood up, grabbing his backpack as he did. He waited for Derek to open the door and then followed him inside. Derek watched as Stiles' eyes looked around and then settled on the bookshelf in the corner. He went right over to it.

There was a shelf with a smattering of random books and then one that had all of the books by M. Genim. Derek had read the guy's first book a few years back, shocked that it was his only one, and then he kept on buying them as they came out. He wrote at least three a year, sometimes four and last year it had been six. So far this year, only two had come out.

"You like him?" Stiles asked as he pointed at the Genim books.

"Favorite author. Looking forward to the next book."

"What do you like about them?" Stiles sat down on the couch with one of the books in his hand.

Derek walked over and sat down beside him, grabbed the book, and opened it up to his favorite image inside.

"The images that go along. It's not like a kids' book with images every few pages. There is always something in the image that needs to be paid attention to, but you never know what it is until you find that passage in the book. The first book in this series had an image in the beginning, the main character in his gear. It wasn't until the end of the book that I realized that the hidden image inside of the image was the dragon. It looked like a broach in the image, and everyone always called it that, but it was a pet." Derek opened the book to the page where the pet got a good drawing of him breathing fire on a man who tried to kill his friend.

Stiles grinned as he dug into his bag and pulled out his tablet. He swiped through a few things and then held it up so Derek could see it.

"That's Iggit," Derek said as he took it. It was a mostly finished drawing of him standing on the head of someone. The head wasn't finished, but the hair told him that it was his friend, Dar. "You draw fan art?" Derek made sure to look up so Stiles could read his lips.

Stiles shook his head and made a swiping motion.

Derek swiped through and found that it was full of images, one of them was the cover for the next book, Derek knew the title. Derek also knew that Genim drew all of his art by hand.

Stiles held out his hand for the tablet, and Derek handed it over. Stiles opened a blank sheet on the drawing app and started to write something with the stylus.

"My full name is Mieczysław Genim Stilinski."

"You are going to get stuff for backgrounds?" Derek asked.

Stiles nodded his head.

"Well, then I'll gladly escort you out. Though, I want your number and you to have mine so you can text me to come and get you, or if anything happens."

"Sure," Stiles signed. He wrote on the tablet again, this time his phone number.

Derek got his cell out and programmed it in before texting him simple "Hi."

Stiles plucked his cell out of his pocket and typed out something. Derek figured that he was responding to a text from someone else, but then Derek's phone vibrated. He looked down.

_I want pics of cute animals and weird looking plants from when you are hiking_.

Derek laughed and nodded his head. He could do that. He saw lots of things that pictures of them would make Stiles smile.

* * *

"Package for you," Cora said when Derek came into the main office building. He stopped and looked at her.

"Package? I didn't order anything, especially to be shipped here."

"It wasn't shipped. It was dropped off by a Deputy."

Derek walked over and grabbed it. If it was dropped off by a Deputy, he trusted it. He grabbed the package and the box cutter. He checked to make sure that it was at the shortest blade before he sliced into the box.

It was kind of heavy, so Derek wasn't sure what it was.

"Holy shit," Derek said as he pulled out the special edition of Stiles' first book of Derek's favorite series. Derek knew that it was coming out, and he had planned to buy it the day it came out. Which was still a month and a half away.

"What?" Cora asked. She walked over to him. "Damn. That's pretty. How did you score that? And why was a deputy dropping it off?"

"You don't..." Derek looked at Cora, trying to see if she really didn't know that Stiles wrote the books.

"Oh, shit. I thought that wasn't coming out until next month. That little shit told me he hadn't got any advanced copies yet." Cora tried to grab it, but Derek clutched it to his chest.

"Nope, Stiles gave it to me."

Cora growled and looked like she was going to lunge at him. "That little shit has kept most of the artwork from me for that. You better let me look at it."

"Children!" Talia said as she left her office.

Cora backed down at once, and Derek took a few steps back from her. He really didn't want the book to get damaged.

"What's going on?"

"Derek's not sharing his book with me."

"That hasn't worked since you were seven, Cora. Try again."

"No, really. I was given a gift, and she wants to look at it first. I, at least, get a first look since it was given to me."

"But he's been my friend for longer!" Cora actually stomped her foot.

"Oh, my God, are you two?" Laura demanded as she came out of her office.

"Derek, I came out to ask you to head out to the waterfall and check on Stiles. He's camping there for the next few days. He's texting his father regularly, but you know how Noah gets."

"Sure, there is a sapling out there that I need to check on. I was stopping in to grab lunch. I'll get him something as well. I know what he brings with him when he heads out here."

Laura gagged a little, but then she saw the book.

"Why did he get a copy?" Laura asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to give Stilinski a piece of my mind when I see him next."

"I'm shocked you aren't storming out to see him."

"He's working. He comes out when he's blocked, and he's threatened Laura and me with never letting us read a book first if he sees us. Probably why the Sheriff is asking you to go and check on him," Laura said.

"What about Spencer?" Derek asked.

"Spencer's the good kid. He could go out, but he got a new video game, and if he goes, he's going to tell Stiles, and then Stiles will want to go home and play."

Derek nodded. He looked at his book and then at his sister's before sticking his tongue out and turning to leave. There was a small deli in the building next door. It got hit up a lot by people for lunch, so Derek hoped that Stiles had gone there before, and the lady running it knew what he wanted. He tucked the book into the pocket where he always slipped his books, glad that he hadn't had one in there already. By the time that he made it to where Stiles was, he hoped that the other man hadn't eaten yet.

Checking on the sapling was the only priority that Derek had that day, and he knew that his mother wasn't going to care if he spent the day at the waterfall reading with Stiles. He had escorted Stiles out there a few times over the summer, but this was the first that Derek hadn't known that he was out there.

The trails were all good after the last storm, so Derek took the harder trail out there. He had learned a few things about Stiles and what he did when he was out there. He didn't always draw. It seemed like now he was writing. Probably with a bunch of power packs to charge his laptop up.

Derek heard the music playing when he got close to where the waterfall was, and he frowned as he got closer. He was coming up behind Stiles, which wasn't a good thing considering, but Derek wanted to see. He looked and saw that Stiles had something up on his computer that was jumping like a racing heart. It was the spikes and flow of the music. Stiles probably didn't even realize that the computer was making a sound.

Backing up, Derek came up from another way, and Stiles looked over at him and waved. He paused his music before he started to sign hello to Derek.

Derek waved back and gripped his backpack tight as he slung it off of his shoulder. He dropped down beside Stiles, seeing the laptop hooked up to a charging station. Digging into the bag, he grabbed out their lunch and handed over Stiles' sandwich. He frowned and unrolled it before grinning.

Stiles closed the laptop and slide it back on the little stand he had on the ground in front of him before he laid his sandwich there.

"Dad wanted someone to check on me?" Stiles asked as soon as his hands were free.

"Yes," Derek said. He turned his head so that Stiles could see him before he went back to dig out the drinks. He held them out and let Stiles choose which one he wanted.

"How long are you staying?" Stiles asked.

"As long as you let me. I don't have much to do out here today, so I was going to hang and read." Derek dropped his hands from signing to grabbing the book and pulling it out.

Stiles looked pleased at the book and a little shocked. "Those got in early. I was expecting them later. Dad had someone drop it off?"

"Yes."

"He had instructions to get you yours first and then Laura and Cora's later. Spencer's is being dropped off later today."

"Why me first?"

"Because I wanted you to hold it over their heads. That's why it was dropped off there."

Derek laughed, and he shook Stiles' shoulder before he started to eat.

Stiles, it seemed, was very hungry as he didn't stop to talk about anything but just shoved food in his mouth constantly. Derek nearly forgot about the chips but remembered them when they were about halfway through their sandwiches.

"How is the book coming?" Derek asked when he finally finished his sandwich. He had just some chips left. Stiles, though had his laptop open again and was pecking at something.

Stiles held up his hand and wobbled it back and forth. He stuck his tongue out, where Derek laughed. "I'm going to go back to work, don't distract me."

Derek held up his hands for a few seconds before going back to finishing off his chips. He cleaned his hands up when he was done and pulled the book out again to start to read it. There were a lot more drawings in the book, and Derek loved it. He grinned as he found a drawing that he knew exactly what real plant it was based on. It wasn't one that Derek had sent a picture of to Stiles but one that was in the area.

The afternoon passed by quickly with the sound of Stiles typing broken up by him, looking at a notebook that Derek assumed was full of notes. He didn't look at them as he didn't want Stiles to think he was trying to sneak a look at things. Derek stretched out at one point, taking up over half of the blanket that Stiles had out on the ground in front of his tent. Even the clacking of the keys on Stiles' laptop didn't bother him. It was nice. He could be happy with this kind of companionship out here. He needed to find someone who was content to do their own thing and leave him to be himself.

Derek fell asleep at one point, the sound of Stiles helping him slip into slumber.

* * *

Derek felt his phone vibrate, and he groaned. No one ever called him when he was out hiking the trails to make sure that nothing was amiss after storms. He paused his MP3 player that had an audiobook going on it and grabbed his phone. It was from the main office, so at least he assumed it was something work-related.

"Hale," Derek said.

"Where are you?" Talia asked.

"Near the back end of the trail that loops around the waterfall," Derek said.

"Good. Stiles is hiking, and he's fallen, and he swears he has broken a foot, but his father thinks he's sprained it. A deputy will meet you at the far trail that goes into the small park and take him in, but all of our guys are out further than you."

Derek knew that Stiles exaggerated some things, but he also knew that if one was out in an area alone like Stiles was, a little pain went a long way.

"I'll get to him in about fifteen minutes," Derek said. He knew a shortcut that he could make running through the Preserve. "It's gonna reveal what I am to him."

"I think he already knows. Peter and I both think that he does and is having a great game torturing Cora and Spencer with it."

Derek waited to tell his mother goodbye, and then he started to jog toward the shortcut. He found it, and as soon as he was on it, he took off running as fast as he could. There was not any other people out and about today. Stiles had been the only one in this area, a hike to clear his mind this morning he had told Derek when they had passed each other.

The smell of Stiles' pain was the first thing that Derek smelled. He used it to zero in on where Stiles was. This trail was Stiles' favorite. Derek could tell with the wind which direction he was, and he found Stiles a few minutes later, leaning against a tree with his boot off. Derek saw why it was off as well. The boot to the side, crammed between two rocks. It looked like there was a rock slide that Stiles had been a part of.

"What happened?" Derek asked.

Stiles frowned and grabbed his phone. That was when Derek noticed that his one hand was in his lap and his fingers looked swollen. Derek rushed over to him and crouched at his side, snagging his arm and gently lifting it. It didn't look like any were broken. He waited for Stiles to type out what he wanted to say.

"I was hiking when I stepped on one of the larger rocks up the trailhead here. It was loose, and I went down with it. Foot got trapped between them. Hand got trapped between a big and a small rock. I was able to free it and then get my foot out of the boot. The rocks kept moving some, and it was trying to take me over the lower part."

Derek looked at the rocks where the boot was, and he could see what Stiles was talking about. The rocks were sliding some and would go over the hill again and if Stiles had still be trapped there. Stiles made the right choice there. Derek walked over and rolled the rock to the side to get Stiles' boot. It wasn't too damaged, and Stiles seemed to buy expensive ones. There was no need for him to lose it. Derek slipped his backpack off and tied Stiles' boot to it. He also reeled in his headphones and put them into the pocket that he stored them in. 

"This is going to hurt, but I'm going to have to carry you out."

"Don't look so sour. I know it's going to hurt. I know that I'm going to be yelled at," Stiles' phone said for him over a very robotic sounding app. 

Derek wrinkled his nose. He gently raised Stiles' hurt hand again and moved the fingers a little bit. Stiles inhaled, and a weird sound came out of his throat like a half-swallowed hiss. 

"Stop," Stiles said, his voice ringing clear. 

Derek gently laid his hand back down and held up his hands. "I was just checking to make sure that they didn't need attention before I picked you up."

"Well it hurt, a lot," Stiles said next. He was glaring at Derek, and Derek wasn't sure if it was because of the hurting him thing or the making him talk thing. 

"Get ready cause this is going to hurt."

"I trust you, even if you are a Sourwolf," Stiles said. His voice hesitated over the Sourwolf part. Like he was saying the word for the first time and wasn't sure that he was actually saying it right since he couldn't hear it. 

Derek was also pretty sure that it was a poke at him for what he was. Derek tried his hardest to gently pick up Stiles, letting him get his good arm over his neck and holding him tight, but between his leg and his hurt arm, Stiles was too hurt to not feel it when Derek stood up with him. With his body not able to help, carrying him on his back wasn't a good idea. 

"Just run fast," Stiles said. He gripped onto Derek as tightly as he could and braced himself for what was to come. 

Derek ran, making sure that Stiles was okay as they moved. Stiles' leg wasn't flopping as much as Derek thought that it would, so he had enough control to keep it from doing that, so Derek picked up speed. They made good time to where the deputy was picking up Stiles. Stiles' backpack was dropped in the front as Derek waited for the deputy to grab it before moving to open the back door so that Stiles could be laid in the back seat of the SUV. 

"His foot was caught between two rocks in a landslide, and his hand was as well. He can move them, but it hurts, so I don't think that anything in his hand is broken, just sprained or stoved up. His foot is out of the boot because it was that or risk the rocks taking him over the hill."

"Okay. Thanks."

Derek looked and saw that the deputy's name was Parrish. Derek knew of him and knew that he was a good guy. The Sheriff had nothing but good things to say about him. 

"I'll make sure that someone tells you how he's doing."

Derek nodded his head. He had plans to be at the hospital as soon as he could get there. A team was needed to deal with the slide, and he would make sure that his mother sent them out to deal with it and close of the loop of the trail. 

Stiles waved at Derek from where he was sitting in the backseat as Parrish drove him away. 

"Derek," Laura called out a few minutes later. 

Derek couldn't even see Stiles or the SUV anymore, but he hadn't been able to move. He turned around and looked at where she was waiting while sitting on and ATV. 

"Let's get you cleaned up and headed out to see him," Laura said with a smile on her face.

"Don't," Derek said, but he started for her. 

"I won't. I promise. Cora does enough bitching about Stiles' side of it all that I've never told her about you as well."

"He..." Derek shook his head and slipped onto the ATV behind her. 

Laura patted his leg, and then they were off. The main office had a shower unit for staff to use. It was little more than a locker room, but it was all genders as there were few of them who worked there that weren't shifters of some kind. The area drew them in, and working for the Hales kind of did the rest on getting them around. 

"GO shower," Laura said as soon as she stopped. 

Derek only stopped long enough to drop his backpack into the office where his mother was working. "Rockslide on the trail. That's what caused it. Get a full team out."

"Sure." 

Derek didn't wait for more. He ran as fast as he could into the locker room. He stripped, shredding his clothes as he did, his claws were out. He didn't care. He washed off as quickly as he could. He kept normal clothes in his locker, and only then did he worry about making sure that his claws were up. He didn't want to think about what he was feeling. He just needed to get to Stiles. Stiles, whose main method of talking, wasn't available to him. It was something that Derek couldn't even think about. Having his voice gone and him not being able to get his point across. He might not like talking, but he did do it. He knew how, even if he really hated doing it. There was a big reason he didn't do the tours. Well, that and the way that the teachers and mothers would hit on him. Even when he had been too young to probably be hit on like that. 

The drive to the hospital was a blur, and it was only the fact that there was Parrish from before standing outside talking to someone that Derek knew where to go when he got inside of the ER. Parrish looked a little shocked to see him but didn't stop him as he headed toward the room. The ER doctor inside was standing and staring at Stiles with his hands crossed over his chest. 

"No phones in the ER," the doctor said again. 

"Then how is he supposed to talk?" Derek asked.

"It says here that he can speak."

"And it's his choice not to. He's Deaf, you asshole. We want a different doctor," Derek demanded.

"And who are you?" the doctor asked.

"His boyfriend," Derek said. He really hoped that Stiles wasn't going to be upset with that. 

The doctor left the room without another word. Derek could hear him griping, and then the sound of someone slamming something down, and a woman started to give him a piece of her mind. Derek focused on Stiles, who patted the bed on the side with his good arm. His other was in a brace that stabilized it, the same with his ankle. 

"How are you doing?" Derek asked before he handed over his phone since it seemed that Stiles' wasn't on him anymore. He figured that the doctor had it. Derek was going to make sure to tell his mother about him and the Sheriff. 

"Here you go, Stiles," the woman who had been yelling at the doctor said as she handed over a whiteboard with a purple marker and Stiles' phone. "Just don't piss off this next one, eh?"

The woman reached out and ruffled Stiles' hair as she looked at Derek. "Boyfriend, huh? Then you would be Derek?"

"Uh, yes, Ma'am," Derek said. He held out his hand. 

"Scott's Mom. Name's Melissa. You need anything for Stiles here, just get me okay?" 

Derek nodded his head, and he looked at Stiles, who was blushing. Stiles was writing something on the board and then turned it around just as Melissa left the room.

"She's like my mom. Kind of stepped in after mine died. Pain is low, but they are waiting on the results to make sure I don't need surgery before giving me anything too strong. Parrish said Dad is on his way."

Derek wondered how Stiles got so much on there with what was his non-dominant hand. 

"I'm glad he's on his way. I know you are an adult, but it's nice to have a parent around. Do you want me to leave?"

Stiles shook his head no.

"Okay, Mischief, since no one else will deal with you," a woman said as she came into the room. She stopped when she saw Derek. "And this is the boyfriend? Told you that you would bag a good boyfriend one of these days."

Stiles flipped her off. She just laughed. The doctor came over and took the brace off of Stiles' hand and started to move the fingers. Derek nearly said something, but then he saw the black lines on her hand. She was doing that and drawing the pain from him. Derek swallowed as he watched Stiles' eyes close, and he looked like he was about to fall asleep. 

"Your bones are fine, you did break your ankle, but no surgery is needed. I just need to set it, and then we can wrap it up until the swelling goes down and cast it. You can come back in for that whenever you want. As to your hand, you need to follow all of the instructions that I send home with you. You've sprained nearly every single finger in your hand. I know that you need it to speak fully, but you'll just have to make do with one hand and your phone."

Stiles nodded his head and inhaled deeply before exhaling. 

"You cannot drive. You can't shift gears in your Jeep with this hand for at least two weeks. You might be fine typing with it, and I know you draw with your other hand sometimes, so that should be fine when this one gets tired. Don't keep it fully immobile."

Stiles nodded again and looked at Derek. Derek gave him a smile, and it seemed to help relax Stiles some. 

Getting out of there was pretty simple. One of the nurses filled out most of the paperwork that was needed and then had Stiles sign where he needed to. Derek was pretty sure that she knew him, but Stiles was silent, even with his eyes as he was given a few shots of stuff to get him through getting home on his leg and hand. He was going to be pretty shut-in for a while, so Derek figured that he would go to stir crazy. Cora could be sent to take care of him as much as possible, and maybe he could work in the main office on his writing and just have people around him that he liked. 

Derek thought about a few other things that he could do to help Stiles as he got used to his new, very limited life until he was healed up.

* * *

The sun still hadn't risen yet, but there was still a glow coming from the direction of the cabin that Derek used more than any other in the Preserve. He frowned as there was no one camping in the area at this time. There were in the other areas but not here. Derek wondered if someone had gotten lost and holed up in there but hadn't used the radio to let anyone know. 

Derek pulled his backpack up and headed toward the glow. As he got closer, he realized that there was someone in the cabin, but it wasn't a random, lost stranger. He shook his head and stopped two hundred feet from the cabin and pulled his phone out. He dialed the non-emergency line for the Sheriff's department and asked to talk to the Sheriff. 

"Stilinski," Noah said.

"Did you lose someone?" Derek asked.

"Ah, fucking hell. Where is he?" Noah asked.

"The ranger's cabin in the middle of the Preserve."

"That little shit. Okay. So I'll figure out who took him there because there is no way that he hiked there. Someone had to have taken him an ATV. I pet my money on Parrish or your sister."

"It could have been my Uncle as well. He's been hanging with him some days in the main office. I know his book was having issues, but I didn't realize it was this bad." 

"He's getting cabin fever. He didn't say a word to me yesterday, hands or phone. He just glared. I think that maybe this will be a good thing. Getting him there. Let me know if he needs anything. I'll track down who took him out there and see if they can give me insights. I'll at least wait until they are awake to do so. What are you doing awake so early?"

"I hiked out far yesterday to check on a few of the animal den areas that have been having issues. We had a few animals set up in the Preserve that don't get along with the others, and I wanted to check. I stayed out late, so I just stayed there until I got some sleep. Went to bed early, got up early, and here I am. I'll hang out here this morning and get a list of anything that he might need before heading in." 

Derek spent a few more minutes, talked to the Sheriff about everything before he hung up. It smelled like Stiles was cooking something. Derek wondered what he was doing awake at this hour. He wasn't going to spend much time figuring that out, though. He was still a little worn out from nearly a week straight of being out and about. His mother wouldn't be upset with him settling into the cabin for a day. Hell, she would probably be happy about it. 

Stiles was on the porch of the cabin. He had his tablet on his knees and was drawing very diligently on it. His hand was a lot better, and while there were days that it ached, he could mostly use it as he had before. His leg though, was still in a cast. The break was healing well, but Stiles had done a number on it, and the doctor was being cautious about taking the cast off and putting him into a boot. Derek figured it was the doctor not wanting him out here sooner than he should be. Though it wasn't stopping him, it seemed. Stiles didn't even look up as Derek got close to him. He saw that Stiles was drawing a wolf, a large black thing that made Derek's chest ache as he knew that it was Pip. 

Pip was an older character in Stiles' second fantasy series. He was a wolf that had been a companion to Star. Derek had loved Pip until he had died at the end of the previous book. Derek figured that it was something for a flashback scene or Star finally finding Pip's body and burying him. Derek stayed where he was as Stiles blew up the screen and worked on Pip's eyes. Derek loved watching Stiles as he drew. He found that Stiles could focus on it so wholly that he never noticed how long Derek watched him. 

Derek gasped though when he saw the way that Stiles was drawing Pip's eyes. There was an intelligence in them that made Derek wonder if Pip had been more than just a wolf. Stiles made the drawing small again before he started to add in details of the area around Pip. It was the cave that he had died in. 

Stiles laughed. It was something low that Derek kind of loved to listen to. Stiles only did ti around him; he had asked Cora about it. Even Scott hadn't heard Stiles laugh before. Stiles tapped on the screen and the little cursor on the screen that showed him where his tool was turned red. Derek frowned, and then he watched as that was filled in on Pip's eyes. The human intelligence in them showed, but now those eyes were almost glowing red. 

Derek knew that Stiles knew that he was there. Derek had spent three hours ranting and raving at Stiles about the end of the book. Derek knew that the next one was done, and he would be working on the cover soon. Stiles drew his fingers over the toggles on the screen that shrunk it again, and Derek realized that this was the cover. With the image of Pip so small, it wasn't noticeable that it was Pip anymore. There was a man beside him, and Pip looked just like a normal wolf. The thing was though that the man's eyes were exactly like Pip's. Stiles narrowed in on the eyes and filled them in as blue. 

The man was a werewolf and so wasn't Pip. Werewolves were in the books, but they were legends of a warrior race that protected the villages until the villagers had turned on them after a charlatan had come to town and turned them one by one against their protectors. Derek frowned when he saw the claws on the man. Then he saw something else—the scar on the man's arm that matched the scar on Pip's front leg. 

"Holy fucking hell," Derek said.

Stiles looked up at him with a smile on his face. 

"Allard Triskele," Derek said. He had never put it together before, the scar on Pip's front leg, and the way that Allard had been killed when it had been talked about. The damage to his arm had allowed the one to get close enough to shove a knife into his back. He had been kicked over the side of a waterfall after that, and his body assumed washed out to sea. 

Stiles raised his eyebrows and waved for Derek to go on.

"The youngest Triskele kid that supposedly had been killed and claimed as the last werewolf in the world. He's lived as a wolf for his entire life and took up with Star. There was the hint that his mother had a nickname for him, but when Star was listening to the tale, she had never heard it. You fucking asshole."

Stiles was grinning at him but ducked his head to work on the cover. He added in color and various other little items. The cover was going to be the biggest clue about the twist in the book, and no one was going to see it because Pip was so small, and it was going to be assumed that he was just another weird creature that Stiles was going to bring in. 

"But blue eyes?" Derek asked.

Stiles dropped the art program to the background and pulled out the notepad and wrote the word spoilers.

Derek laughed at that. He could just hear River Song saying it as well. Stiles had a few things on his phone, audio clips, and the like that he liked to use on people. He would play them at the wrong moments sometimes to make someone laugh, though. It kind of reminded Derek a little of Bumblebee in the first Transformers movie. 

"You hungry?" Derek asked. He could smell the food, but he couldn't smell any around Stiles at the moment. It was like he had made it but not ate it. 

"Cooking," Stiles signed, spelling out each letter. His other hand was stationary on his lap. Stiles must have done his exercises on it, and it was aching a little. 

Derek reached out slowly, letting Stiles pull his hand away if he didn't want it touched. Stiles let it happen, though. Derek felt the dull ache that was centered in Stiles' fingers. He was in a little more pain than normal after his exercises. Derek raised an eyebrow at that.

Stiles shrugged and then mimed hitting something off of something. Derek took that to mean that Stiles had hit it off of something. 

"Why don't we head inside, and I'll get you settled on the couch with your leg up and then ice for your hand." Derek stopped the drain before all of the pain was gone, just enough to where Stiles could use his hand to sign if he wanted. 

Stiles brought up the cover of the book again and saved a copy of what he had going on and then turned off the screen. He slipped the tablet back into the case and slipped the stylus inside before closing it. Derek took that and tucked it close to his body as he waited for Stiles to use him to get himself up. He wobbled a little, and Derek knew that he had his leg down too much. 

Derek wondered what he could do to get Stiles to stay here for a few days. Derek could check on him, and Cora could bring him out lunch on and ATV. He laughed when he went into the cabin and saw that Stiles had taken over the kitchen table with his writing stuff. There was a notebook that Derek knew was the plot bible for his book series. There was one for each, and that one had the cover of the first book of the books about Star. He had never looked inside of it, but Stiles had shown him some of the detailed timelines that he had when Derek had asked about it. 

Stiles was blushing when Derek looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Stiles shrugged before he headed over to the couch. Stiles could get around without using a crutch now, but he was still very slow when he moved. Derek watched him until he dropped down onto the couch. He propped his leg up and looked like he nearly sighed at it. 

Derek set about seeing what Stiles had in the oven. It was an electric stove, which wasn't the best, but it was better than getting gas out to the cabin or dealing with having to swap tanks. It was a casserole of some kind and smelled really good. Derek recognized the dish as one from Stiles. He had brought brownies to the main office in it one time.

Breakfast was easy to serve up when the oven timer went off. There was also a vibration from Stiles' phone that was silenced. Double timers, which was Stiles did when he wasn't the only one around. Stiles had done well on learning how to live in a world with other people who could hear but also make sure that he wasn't being taken advantage of. 

Derek carried the plates over as well as two glasses of orange juice. He laid Stiles' on the pillow on his lap before setting his glass down in reach of him. Derek took a seat on the coffee table and dug into his food. Stiles was eating pretty fast, so Derek assumed he had been up for a while. Derek was glad that he had given him a larger piece of the casserole than he would normally have. 

Stiles was all smiles as he ate, looking at Derek on occasion. 

When they were done, Derek carried the empty plates and glasses into the kitchen and set them in the sink to be taken care of. He put the leftovers into a few single-serve containers for breakfast the next few mornings. When he got back into the living room area, he frowned as he saw that Stiles asleep. Derek covered him up before he found his cell phone in his backpack and checked the charge before smiling as the message from Cora form a little while ago telling him that Stiles was in the cabin, and he had been sleeping for shit. 

Derek turned to look at Stiles before he walked over and picked him up. Derek could do with a little more sleep, and cuddling was good. Stiles likes cuddling with Derek. Even if they hadn't taken that next step to becoming something more, Derek knew that they would soon. Stiles grabbed Derek's arm and wrapped it around his waist and started to drift off to sleep again as soon as Derek was how he wanted him. Derek smiled. It seemed like the change was going to happen sooner rather than later. Derek was okay with that.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot. 
> 
> Check out my two Quantum Bang fics that went live this June.  
> Teen Wolf's [Fail. Try Again. Fail Better.](http://quantumbang.org/fail-try-again-fail-better-by-darkjediqueen/)   
> Criminal Minds' [The Ache for Something More](http://quantumbang.org/the-ache-for-something-more-by-darkjediqueen/).


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